If you happen to be checking out the 250cc free practice at Estoril, you’ll notice that Team Toth’s Mattia Pasini is not classified. Pasini isn’t out sick or injured, he can’t ride because Team Toth is once again in financial difficulties and haven’t come up with another lease payment that they owe Aprilia.

The Toth situation has been going on for months and before every Gran Prix weekend, Pasini never knows if he’ll be racing or not. At Assen, the Italian rider missed half of the first free practice session, when Aprilia impounded the ECU’s, until their bank gave them word that Toth had paid up, but this time no bank draft came through and Pasini got stuck on the sidelines.

Imre Toth’s son is currently using an old 2001 Aprilia race bike that his father personally owns and hopefully has already paid for.

Pasini is currently 5th in the 250cc Championship and has twice tested the Ducati Desmosedici.

Source | gpone

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There will be no repeat of what happened in Team Toth at Assen, and Mattia Pasini can take a deep breathe this weekend, and concentrate only on his riding at Sachsenring,
Team Toth has come up with the 100,000 euros to pay Aprilia for the RSA’s.

Mattia Pasini is currently fifth in the 250cc Championship.

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Mattia Pasini may not be competing in this weekend’s 250cc Sachsenring GP race and we may see another embarrasing repeat of what happened to Pasini and Team Toth during the Assen free practice last month.

According to Gpone, Team Toth is already setting up at Sachsenring, but Aprilia has once again impounded the electronic units, because the Noale based manufacturer is still waiting to recieve still another payment on the bikes and will release the units only on proof of payment as in Assen.

Pasini will have to wait to see what happens, but rumors are flying that the Italian rider may be heading to MotoGP to replace Niccolò Canepa in Pramac Racing.

Paolo Campinoti and Ducati have been reported as saying that they believe in Canepa, but that hasn’t stopped speculation that the rookie will be under close scrutiny at Sachsenring and Donington and unless he has a sharp improvement in the next two races, his Ducati could end up in Pasini’s hands for the rest of the 2009 season.

Source | gpone

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Curious about what happened to Team Toth at Assen yesterday?

Aprilia returned the bikes to Team Toth to have them undergo the pre-weekend technical checks, minus the electronic units. Without the units the bikes were useles and Aprilia would return them only on confirmation that Toth had paid up the outstanding debt.

Free practice was about to start and Toth’s bikes were still sitting silently in the garage with Mattia Pasini and the entire team nervously waiting for last minute news with Pasini hanging out a sign for journalists with “No moto, non parti” (no bike, no start) written on it, as the session started without them.

The session was almost half way over, when Aprilia’s Luca Boscoscuro arrived at Toth’s box bringing with him the impounded units, in a flurry the mechanics immediately mounted them on the bikes and Pasini tooke off like an banshee with team mate Imre Toth Jr. following, both trying to get in some of the remaining practice time.

Continue reading: Team Toth Story - Assen Free Practice

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The story regarding Team Toth is getting more complicated and mysterious as the hours go by.

According to Gpone.com ,who first reported the news about Toth’s financial difficulties, is now writing that Mattia Pasini’s #75 Aprilia is not in in Team Toth’s trucks as Toth declared to Motogphirek, but are under lock and key in one of Aprilia’s trucks as they have been since the Catalunya GP when Aprilia placed the bikes under precautionary seizure.

Mattia Pasini is not even sure if he will be able to take part in this Saturday’s Assen TT Race. Here’s what he had to say to GPone:

“I found out about this story after Barcelona. I was supposed to go to Valencia to test and instead we ended up with no bikes. The worse thing is I don’t know what to expect. I’m here, the trucks are here, the mechanics are here, even our hospitality is here, but we don’t have our bikes. I haven’t been able to to talk to Imre, but Aprilia … I don’t understand. Maybe they’re afraid of me, and even with their cast offs I can still beat them.”

Source | gpone

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The other week , several Italian websites were running the story that 250cc Team Toth was in dire financial difficulties and that Italian manufacturer Aprilia had placed Toth’s bikes under precautionary seizure until the Hungarian team, who defaulted the second instalment payment, paid up their debt.

Now according to Hungarian website Motogphirek, who has been following the news, rang up team owner Imre Toth Sr. to ask him if there was any truth to these rumors, and as they are reporting Toth did not know of these rumors, infact the reporter had to fill him in on the latest gossip regarding his team when Toth said “What?”.

The Hungarian manager had a good laugh and denied that he was having problems and that all the speculation was false and that someone had made up the rumors and assured all the fans that his truck carrying the bikes and equipment are well on there way to Assen and they will compete on Saturday just like everyone else.

Toth also denied that he had been in talks with Jorge “Aspar” Martinez to have Mattia Pasini’s team merged with Aspar’s Balatonring team.

Thanks xahó for the tip and link.

Source | motogphirek

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Grand Prix racing is not only the premier MotoGP class but also includes the 125cc and 250cc series that often gives us much closer and exciting racing.

The leaders of these races often disappointed that the do not get the media recognition that they deserve. One of these riders is Mattia Pasini who wil probably be riding for Team Toth Aprilia, probably because Team Toth is one of the many teams who is having financial problems.

Pasini who is outspoken almost as much as fellow Italian Marco Simoncelli had a few things to say about the situation regarding MotoGP coverage and his class:

“I’m sorry to observe that MotoGP is taking space away from the lower classes when our racing is much more fun and exciting than their racing is. If in 2008, if we take away Rossi’s famous pass at the Corkscrew at Laguna Seca, the rest of the season was utterly boring.

When you see Casey take off on the first lap, after awhile you almost fall asleep. They should talk more about the lower classes we should have more space and media coverage. I’m now talking with Media Action Comunications about a new project regarding this matter.”

Source | tuttosport

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